One summer during college, I took a music history course on the elusive and esoteric art form of Jazz, "the only truly American art form" according to my professor. He (Mr. P.) was what one would expect in a music history teacher at a local community college: a white middle class male, an MFA in music at a small liberal arts college, dogged in his classifications. "Jazz" he said "is the greatest American art form for two reasons. It's founded in improvisation, Jazz music is always alive, no two performances are the same. Without that element of improvisation, it's not Jazz. Secondly, Jazz is the only music that was born entirely within the United States." Now whether or not you share Mr. P's opinion on Jazz music, one must concede that Jazz' tradition is a largely an American one; an African American one. A brief history for the un-initiated, what we call jazz music today has its roots in the funeral march music of New Orleans where the procession would march to the graveyard led by the band playing a slow, melancholy, number (the first line) and dance back to town to what became Dixieland and Swing music (the second line). As Ken Burns and others will tell you, this music came from places like the infamous "Congo Square" where African slaves would come and play, fusing their musical sensibilities with Instruments and sounds from European music. And so Jazz became the popular music of the day, thoroughly upsetting the fragile sensibilities of much of America. But the question stands, why, how for that matter, did it move out of the Black communities of the south and into mainstream consciousness? When looking at what made Jazz, both the music and the culture that formed around it, so sensational, and ultimately so popular, the newness of it cannot be denied, but I think that its roots in African American culture are often downplayed. Jazz started out as party music rooted in the cultural traditions of the south. One can only imagine how new and exciting it seemed to the generation grown up around this time, namely the white mainstream of America. Here was music un-encumbered by the traditions, conventions, and expectations of their parents generation; music that wasn't stuck trying to imitate the classical traditions of Europe. It was able to achieve this precisely because of its roots in African culture. Until then most white Americans were steeped in the ideas and musical traditions of Europe and it took the radically different paradigm that rose out of the culture of the south to foster this new sound. This is not intended to disparage classical music or white musicians in general. I think what must be understood when thinking about this is that whiteness at the time (and really throughout the U.S.'s history) meant the wealthier, privileged status quo. If we look at the larger cultural history of the United States, I think it can be argued that much of the cultural movements here have their roots in African American communities (Blues, R&B , Rock and Roll, Hip-Hop, et al.) I would argue however, that this owes more to the fact that African Americans are also the largest group that has categorically suffered the most repression in social, political, economic, and cultural terms. If you buy the maxim that great art comes out of great suffering then this would seem to make a lot of sense.